Late on Tuesday

Mary had a pretty good day overall, she reported. I had a long day at work so I left here while she was still sound asleep and got back 12 hours later. I did talk to her during the day and she reported she was doing fine, with just a little back pain now and then. She did feed herself breakfast and lunch. For lunch, she warmed up the chicken soup she made from last night.

On Monday night when I got home, Mary was in the middle of prepping chicken noodle soup--home made. She was dicing celery, carrots, chicken, mushrooms, etc., and then cooked them up in a broth. She also had the big pan boiling away to cook the noodles. She got the noodles in the boiling water and then acknowledged she was out of steam and her back was hurting from the leaning over the chopping board. At that point I became chef and she took the command chair to talk me through the rest of preparing dinner. Soon after she ate she headed back to her chaise lounge in the bedroom to give herself some relief from the back pain.

Tonight neither one of us wanted to cook so we did take out. We hadn't had a good, sinful hamburger for a while, so Happy Hound did the honors. With french fries and deep fried onion rings! Really sinful! But, great joint food!

I reported I had some kind of swelling with skin discoloration at the end of last week. My doc prescribed some antibiotics which I started taking on Friday afternoon (4 horse-sized pills per day). As early as Saturday morning it was evident the swelling was on the way down and the skin color was returning to normal. As of today, the area looks as if nothing happened. I know, I know, I will finish the entire 7 day course of antibiotic treatment the doc prescribed.

The bottom line on Mary is that she does seem to be getting stronger and less pain but overall she is still nowhere near a normal status. The woman who baked dozens and dozens of cookies over two days in preparation for Thanksgiving has not yet returned. For example, she didn't have the energy to fold the laundry after I ran the washer and dryer over the weekend. All we can do is be patient and let nature heal our girl's bones.